It’s a busy ‘Blogging morning. First: here’s a scholarly (or at least reasonably well-informed) argument for me to remove my usual distancing quotation marks from “Islamofascist”, “balanced” by more criticism for the U.S. administration over Iraq and terrorism (specifically Al-Qaeda and friends) in a ‘Blog interview with Peter Bergen, author of Holy War, Inc.: Inside […]
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27Aug03 — 0
Cultural Centres
Even though Martin has recently stopped reading PooterGeek because it’s become “too self-referential”* lately, I am going to post his recommended link to Arts and Letters Daily. It looks like a superb regular stop-off point for literature lovers and culture vultures of every kind. There’s one for technophiles too. (Image of Martin courtesy of Adam) […]
Read More26Aug03 — 3
GI Joe to the Rescue
This is an example of that rare thing, excellent tabloid journalism. (In case you think this is Right-wing, gung-ho, salute-the-flag nonsense you should, as Wiqqi would say, read it in the context of Salam Pax.) Update: Adam says the Salam Pax link is dead. That’s because “Where’s Raed?” is currently dead. Probably killed by the […]
Read More25Aug03 — 0
Still Crap
I have pointed out here before that I am the World’s worst football fan. Appropriately, I “support” the “worst” team in the Premiership. They aren’t simply bad in a finishing-close-to-the-bottom-of-the-table-heavily-in-debt way. They are bad in a chronically-underperforming-and-dull-to-watch-yet-embarrassingly-in-credit way. I only mention this to point out that the day before yesterday (my terrible supporting consists of […]
Read More24Aug03 — 0
All They’re Quacked Up To Be
The real news is terrible right now, so here is a random science story from September 2001. Sexual selection is a fascinating little cupboard of biology. My previous boss started out as a biologist working on sperm competition. As a full professor he amusingly listed one of his interests as “spermatogenesis”. He worked on mice, […]
Read More22Aug03 — 4
In No Man’s Land
Today I have read two depressing Economist editorials about the “Road Map“. The first was in my subscription copy, written after the suicide bombing in Jerusalem, but before the assassination of Ismail Abu Shanab. It stated drily that things were worse than they looked. The second is online now. I don’t think a subscription is […]
Read More21Aug03 — 0
Miller Light
Auriol Miller and family garden party pics up over at LoveAndBentSpoons.
Read More21Aug03 — 2
Who’s In; Who’s Out
It seems Nelson Mandela is (temporarily) off the U.S.A.’s list of terrorists. How long before these “militants” are on the BBC’s?
Read More21Aug03 — 2
Flypaper / Quagmire / Tarpit
Amber* sent a link to a New York Times article [free registration required yakety yakety] about how the United States’ postwar slackness has fostered terrorism in Iraq. She also writes to tell me that, like everyone else (but me), she has received 400 email messages from various worms. Ah, Microsoft. (According to Geoff, our head […]
Read More21Aug03 — 2
Mingle Mangle Mingle Mangle
I am trying to wrap my head around the fact that John Pilger and Christopher Hitchens both write for The Mirror. (The title is the theme from The Twilight Zone—just repeat it over and over in a sing-song voice and you’ll see what I mean. Or perhaps you’ll just sound very silly.)
Read More20Aug03 — 0
More Family Photos
There are some new pics from niece Maisie’s christening at LoveAndBentSpoons. If you’re interested start on page 10 of this gallery.
Read More20Aug03 — 0
A Reason to Buy The Times At Last
Here’s another one for my friends, the “Iraqi” “resistance”.
Read More19Aug03 — 3
Lest We Forget
Little Green Footballs annoys me. It’s a ‘Blog which does the useful service of accumulating various racist rantings from Islamic extremists. And it’s a ‘Blog that does itself a disservice with its own racist rants. While dropping by today to disapprove, I picked up a link there to a letter in the Telegraph that every […]
Read More19Aug03 — 2
Hey, Sloth Girl!
Congrats to fellow blogger Casual Savant who has submitted her dissertation and is now conspicuously inactive. Thanks for the postcard from Paris which finally arrived at work today—doncha love those productive Frenchies? Lovely handwriting as always. Here’s the obligatory Douglas Adams quote: "My favourite piece of information is that Branwell Bront,Ak(B, brother of Emily and […]
Read More18Aug03 — 0
Rebels Without a Brain
This article about the “Iraqi” “resistance” adds a couple of new-ish twists to the tales of guerilla warfare. I love the bit at the end about those Yankee bastards bringing attacks down on themselves by insensitively playing John Cougar Mellencamp through speakers strapped to their Humvees. That’s just evil. Why can’t they celebrate by firing […]
Read More18Aug03 — 3
From Hell’s Heart I Stab At Thee!
The jostling of the Google giants continues: Claire.Berlinski: 1150 Damian.Counsell: 974 Wait till my books come out, clever trousers. (Oh yes, here’s the obligatory Kirk link for those of you geeky enough to recognize the place where the Moby Dick quote was most famously re-deployed.)
Read More17Aug03 — 2
Enemy at the Gates
Enemy at the Gates is to Saving Private Ryan as Battlestar Galactica was to Star Wars. Enemy at the Gates does several big-budget things well. It terrifies us with its depiction of a Stuka attack on troop carriers. It renders the grim vistas of the destruction of Stalingrad so spookily you’d feel sad just looking […]
Read More16Aug03 — 2
Tour de Force
After his appearance in PooterGeek this week, Allan Brigham—this the last time I will refer to you as “celebrity roadsweeper“, Allan, I promise—invited me on one of his tours of Cambridge for free. What a revelation! Sonya and I joined the throng outside the Guildhall yesterday evening and (after some shockingly un-English touchy-feely stuff so […]
Read More15Aug03 — 2
Who Breaks a Butterfly?…
I’ve pulled the Monotreme reviews and associated debate. PooterGeek has, surreally, already become Google’s 12th highest hit for “K*** vs O******”. As previous experience has shown, it would be number 1 within a week. No one deserves that—even R** P***** V**********. (The title of this post is the beginning of the Alexander Pope quotation in […]
Read More15Aug03 — 0
Cruel Summer
Here’s another one from The Guardian, via Wiqqi, about the messiness of post-war justice in Iraq under the U.S.. There is something grimly ironic about an Iraqi trying to explain away gunfire to an American soldier with the phrase “every household in Baghdad has a gun”. I have no doubt that Americans are ballsing up […]
Read More14Aug03 — 0
What Kind of Monster?…
I’m trying hard not to feel threatened as I absorb the news that PooterGeek’s readers’ comments have become more interesting than my postings. Before you guys start getting cocky, just remember who pays for the bandwidth around here.
Read More14Aug03 — 2
Heat Stroke
I’m not sure whether this means Glenn Reynolds‘s stock is falling or Claire Berlinski‘s is rising, but, yesterday, his Weblog Instapundit actually reproduced Claire’s haiku on the death of her bonsai tree.
Read More13Aug03 — 1
Pinoy Collation
I didn’t mention the non-coup in the Philippines at the time, but Maoi’s fellow countrywoman, Jessica Zafra, has some amusing reflections on the “tumultuous” events, quoted over at Casual Savant.
Read More13Aug03 — 2
Quotes of the Week
A twenty-something female work colleague began a non-ironic sentence like this: "I don’t want a perfect body or anything, but, you know Halle Berry?…" …before continuing on to covet in detail Ms. Berry’s defined deltoids—only her deltoids, I must admit. If I could focus on Halle’s deltoids alone long enough to see what my co-worker […]
Read More13Aug03 — 1
Material World
The BBC has a report on a man who has gone into business to sell virtual goods that exist only in the Internet gaming community of Ultima Online. As the sneering became deafening, this Slashdot comment rose above the whine to make a telling point: You could call this social criticism(Score:5, Funny) by panurge (573432) […]
Read More13Aug03 — 0
Just War?
At last someone is making interesting points in the opinion pages of The Guardian about Iraq and the debate over wars of intervention. Thanks to Wiqqi for the link to this article which he suggests should be read alongside the latest from Iraqi ‘Blogger Salam Pax in the same newspaper. (I disagree with that suggestion, […]
Read More13Aug03 — 0
Version 1.01
Not surprisingly, my flurry of postings in the small hours contained lots of typos. I think they’re all fixed now. Thanks to Casual Savant for spotting a couple—but not all of them, smartypants.
Read More12Aug03 — 0
High Traffic
I don’t think I’ve ever woken up to so many PooterGeek comments. If you haven’t visited it lately you might be shocked by the stack of messages from lusty schoolgirls, demanding to see their hero in the buff at the “Naked H**** P*****” entry. Every Blogger in Christendom has linked to this, but you might […]
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